The PACK is based on the Vault Augmented Power System mod from Fallout 3, except written with my own touches.
The PACK consists of the following items:
This item allows you to control various aspects of the PACK system, including power management. It gradually bleeds charge from your Pip-Boy's internal microfusion breeder, gaining Kilowatts of charge very slowly from this. Kilowatts are an undroppable quest item (although they are given the world view model of a Sierra Madre chip just in case), and you are limited in how many you can carry at one time (excess is discharged and disappears.)
Most items made for the PACK require, at minimum, a supply of Scrap Electronics and Scrap Metal or their base components, as well as certain skills or perks.
This device allows you to gradually gain KW of power from that lucky old sun.
PACK Solar Charger - Gain power from sunlight.
PACK Inertial Dampener - Reduce weight of carried items.
PACK Stealth System - Sneak around easily.
PACK Lootmaster - Transmute loot into money.
PACK Biofuel Cell (biodegradation) - Degrade items for power.
PACK MicroICE Cell (internal combustion) - Burn fuel for power.
PACK Chemical Analysis Suite - Analyze or break down chems.
PACK AutoDoc Injection System - Inject chems.
PACK MicroFusion Generator - Micro-power generation.
PACK Hyperflux Capacitor - Holds power.
PACK Micro-Matter Replicator - Copy items.
PACK Molecular Replacer - Repair items.
PACK Benchmaster - Automate breakdown and rebuilding of projectile ammunition.
PACK Energy Shield System - Generate a defensive energy shield.
PACK Cell Recharger - Automatically charges drained energy cells if PACK energy high enough.
PACK Zero-Point Transfer System - Stores items in a special container that you can fetch from later.
PACK Console Debug Key - Access locked terminals.
PACK Mechanical Override - Unlock locked items.
PACK Rad Coupler - Gain power from irradiated areas.
PACK Thermocoupler - Gain power from very warm areas (or when otherwise being heated).
PACK Recyclotron - Break items automatically down into components (using Craft Master system).
PACK Minifactory - Automatically produce items using components (using Craft Master system).
PACK Dehydrator - Convert meats and certain other items into tasty jerky.
PACK Nutrimentor - Convert food materials into raw components, and convert these components into Nutriment Pills. Note that eating the raw components is generally extremely unappealing, and Nutriment Pills have no appeal.
PACK Fluid Coolant System - Acts as an additional cooling system for user and PPA; turns Purified Water into steam, and may irradiate user if irradiated water is used.
PACK Powered Armor Connector - Connects PACK to Powered Armor systems, enabling them to use PACK charge.
PACK Microfusion Breeder Cell - Generates energy automatically over time.
PACK Oxygenator - Extends breathing time underwater (grants waterbreathing while running).
PACK Water Compressor - Compresses bottled or available water; can be set to autofill while underwater; can be set to autofuel the microfusion generator.
V.A.P.S. Manual:
1 Introduction:
V.A.P.S. (the Vault Augmented Power System) is a Fallout 3 mod I started based on the desire to automate a number of repetitive tasks. It can do a number of useful things including providing reusable stealth, automatic administration of drugs, automatically selling of loot items, automatically repairing equipment and (with an optional add-on) automatically creating ammo. All these functions are optional and configurable and implemented in an immersive and not-too-unbalancing way.
To preserve the RPG experience and avoid handing out powerful items early in the game the items that perform these functions are added (as schematics) when the player meets intelligence and skill requirements to “invent” them. Most items may also be upgraded after they are built, see section 3 below for details.
2 Installation Requirements:
2.1 Dependencies: V.A.P.S. Requires:
CRAFT (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447) V.A.P.S. was written and tested with CRAFT 1.25, but it should work with other compatible versions
FOSE 1.2b2 or newer (http://fose.silverlock.org) This is vital. As of this writing V.A.P.S. is using a couple of (so far) undocumented functions added in the latest version of FOSE.
The optional Automated Ammo Toolkit requires: Ammo Toolkits (aka “Ammo Bench”, http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2693) and V.A.P.S. uses CRAFT you should install the optional “Ammo Bench - CRAFT Plugin.esp”. V.A.P.S. was written with Ammo Toolkits v3.71.
The optional Mr. Lab Technician esp requires: Install MrSlackPants original Mr. Lab Technician mod (required for textures), then REPLACE MrLabTechnician.esp with the version from the V.A.P.S. archive.
The various V.A.P.S. add-on packs for DLC or other mods each depend on both V.A.P.S. and the relevant DLC/mod, but unless otherwise noted are not actually required.
2.2 Installation and Recommended Load Order: If you are upgrading from an older version in which you had completed “The Genius Within” framing quest, and the new version adds new V.A.P.S. schematics, then the V.A.P.S. framing quest will be reset the first time you run the game with the new version of V.A.P.S. (i.e. when you load a saved game that was saved with an earlier V.A.P.S. version) This means that you will loose your V.A.P.S. configuration & custom hotkey settings, but you should get the new schematics added when you meet the requirements.
V.A.P.S. optional add-ons need to be loaded after V.A.P.S. itself and after the mod or DLC it adds support for. For example when using the Automated Ammo Toolkit your load order should be something like: vaps.esm Ammo Bench.esm vaps.esp Ammo Bench - CRAFT Plugin.esp vaps-automated-ammo-toolkit.esp MrLabTechnician.esp
In theory most V.A.P.S. esps will work normally if loaded in the incorrect order. The one exception to this is that MrLabTechnician.esp MUST be loaded after vaps.esp if you are using the V.A.P.S. version of MrLabTechnician.
2.3 Upgrading from an earlier version
The main V.A.P.S. quest script handles most adjustments that need to be made during an upgrade automatically.
When upgrading to a version that includes major changes (e.g. new V.A.P.S. items) the V.A.P.S. framing quest “The Genius Within” will be reset, which may result in a number of quest and quest-objective related messages. This is necessary in order to ensure that the player will be given schematic notes for new V.A.P.S. items after loading a saved game in which “The Genius Within” had been completed using an older version of V.A.P.S.
As of version 1.0 Beta 11 most V.A.P.S item settings should remain unchanged during an upgrade, but please note that when upgrading to beta 11 from beta 10 or earlier the following settings will revert to their default values: - The Solar Charger will be switched on - The BioCell will be set to “Run on Compost” - The Hot Heron IX's max charge level will be set to 10 units (5 seconds) if it was previously set to a value under 10 - The AutoDoc Jr. Radiation thresholds for Rad-X and Rad Away will be set to 1000 rads - The Lootmaster will be switched on - The Electrostatic Plasma Shield will be set to a power multiplier of 0.25 CU per second per unit of DR - The Electrostatic Plasma Shield's visual and sound effects will be switched on
3 Detailed Description of V.A.P.S. Items (includes minor spoilers)
3.0 Starting the V.A.P.S. quest The V.A.P.S. framing quest “The Genius Within” should start automatically for characters with an intelligence of 8 or above who are outdoors. If you play a character with an intelligence score below 8 then the quest will not start until you raise your INT (for newbies: You can do this through perks, the Intelligence Bobblehead or by taking Mentats. The Intelligence check is only performed at the start of the quest).
The first objective 'Learn More About Science' can be completed by reaching a science skill level of 50 (again modifiers from clothing, drugs, etc. are accepted).
Once you have a high-enough Science score you will “invent” your first V.A.P.S. Schematic, in homage to the mod that inspired it, this is a solar energy cell.
After you use a CRAFT-enabled workbench to build the Solar Charger you should advance to the next stage of the quest, and probably get another V.A.P.S. schematic (or several) at the same time. Subsequent quest objectives may be completed in any order. “Build a…” objectives are completed when you have the relevant V.A.P.S. item (not the schematic) in your inventory. “Learn more about…” objectives exist to let you know that more V.A.P.S. schematics can be accessed by raising the specified skill.
3.1 Things that use power to do cool stuff:
V.A.P.S. Charge Controller Requirements: Create Solar Charger Ingredients: None
The Charge Controller does not actually produce or consume power, it is used to configure V.A.P.S. global settings (currently just switching power-generation related messages on or off) or to activate any other V.A.P.S. item you are carrying. It should be added to your inventory automatically shortly after you create the Solar Charger. You may assign a custom (i.e. not digit's 1-8) hotkey to this item from its menu. See the section “Assigning a hotkey” below for details.
V.A.P.S. Hot Heron IX Stealth System Requirements: Science 50 Ingredients: Stealthboy + Recon Armor + Wonderglue Improved by Adding Stealth boy parts
Basically just a re-usable Stealth Boy. When initially created it can give you a stealth field for 5 seconds, with a 10 second (minimum) recharge time. Adding additional Stealth Boy parts through the configuration menu increases the stealth time by 5 seconds per Stealth Boy up to a maximum of 1800 seconds (30 realtime mins). The minimum recharge time increases with each additional Stealth Boy, but not as quickly as the stealth time (it's approximately 60*log(2*stealthtime) seconds). Recharging will take longer if you do not have enough V.A.P.S. charge units (it requires 2 CU per second of stealth).
Activating the inventory item gives you the configuration menu if you are standing up, or attempts to activate the stealth field if you are hidden (crouching). You may assign a custom (i.e. not digit's 1-8) hotkey to this item via it's configuration menu. See the section “Assigning a hotkey” below for details. Why the “Hot Heron IX”? It's an anagram I'll leave up to the readers with OCD to solve ;)
V.A.P.S. Automated Ammo Toolkit Requirements: Carrying an Ammo Toolkit and a V.A.P.S. Charge Unit Ingredients: Ammo Toolkit + Scrap Metal Improved by collecting relevant schematics
So you've installed MMMF 3 with Increased Increased Spawns and Broken Steel. You've set the game to “Very Hard” and you've just gone through 40,000 rounds of 5.56mm ammo killing off that swarm of Albino Radscorpians that were following the Behemoth you shot your last Mini-Nuke at. Do you spend a week mooching around merchants for some more ammo? Do you head into the wastes to take on the Enclave with nothing but your trusty 10mm SMG to protect you? Worry no more: The Automated Ammo Toolkit is here to save you! Act now and we'll throw in an automated Wonder Meat Maker too!
Well OK, enough of that. The Automated Ammo Toolkit is an optional add on for V.A.P.S. that extends (and requires) the StewB's excellent Ammo Toolkits mod (see section 2 above). For the most part it simply automates use of the recipes included in that mod (as of version 3.71), with a few minor changes & additions:
- All ammo types can be recycled yielding 90% of the ingredients that would have been used to produce the same number of units of ammo (with a v3 schematic). Recycling energy-weapon ammo yields energy in the form of V.A.P.S. Charge Units.
- Scrap metal is produced on-demand according to Ammo Toolkit rules or by recycling ammo.
- It uses a “Gunpowder” object instead of frag grenades/mines. To get the same effect as the original Ammo Toolkit just set the automatic action for frag grenades and/or frag mines to “Recycle”. Gunpowder is produced on demand like Scrap Metal (except that you can only get gunpowder by recycling ammo, frag grenades or frag mines).
- Don't ask me why, but the Ammo Workbench recipe for BB's requires a “powder source”. A BB gun is normally a device that shoots BBs (Ball Bearings) using a spring to impart kinetic energy (the spring in the player's first BB gun is actually mentioned in game dialog), absolutely no explosives are involved. This bothered me enough that I made the AATK produce BB's using only scrap metal.
- Energy ammo recipes are abstracted on the premise that 1 Fission Battery = 150 V.A.P.S. charge units. This also allows energy ammo set to “Recycle” to serve as a V.A.P.S. power source.
- The amount of ammo produced (and the ability to produce at all) is affected by schematics in the same way as production at a work bench or regular Ammo Toolkit, but ammo production by the AATK does not contribute to or benefit from the Ammo Artisan perk.
- The Automated Ammo Toolkit can produce a few craftable items that aren't part of the “Ammo Toolkits” mod: Nuka-Grenades and Bottlecap Mines can be automatically produced using the normal workbench recipe. The option to produce Mole Rat Wonder Meat is added the first time the AATK detects some in your inventory. It doesn't produce Ultrajet or Cave Fungus as the required items are clearly trade goods rather than the sole ingredients.
- Even if you install both the Ammo Toolkit plugin and the V.A.P.S. plugin for Mothership Zeta, the AATK still won't produce alien ammo, sorry.
V.A.P.S. Auto-Doc Jr. Requirements: Science 60, Medicine 50, Carrying Prototype Medic Armor Ingredients: Prototype Medic Power Armor + Empty Syringe + Surgical Tubing Improved by Perks that affect chems
The Auto-Doc junior can be set to automatically administer drugs at appropriate times according to conditions specified by the player. Crafting the Auto-Doc Jr. consumes the Prototype Medic Armor, yielding an Auto-Doc Jr. and either regular Power Armor or 45 units of scrap metal depending on the player's repair skill (n.b. If you really like the Medic Armor you can keep one by duplicating it with the Arc Triplet Reactor before building the Auto-Doc Jr.).
Please note that unlike the Prototype Medic Power Armor my Auto-Doc Jr. applies the actual effect of the drug in question. This means that Chemist, Chem Resistant and Fast Metabolism perks all affect the Auto-Doc's injections and you have a normal chance to become addicted to the drug. Also any mods you install that change drug effects should apply to the Auto-Doc's injections.
Use of each drug can be switched on or off individually in the Auto-Doc Jr's menu. Drugs will not be re-applied until the previous does has worn off (at which point the conditions are re-evaluated). Unless otherwise noted a drug is only applied if all listed conditions are met and the player has at least one dose of the drug in their inventory.
Drugs Applied only in Combat:
Buffout: - Player is holding a melee or unarmed weapon (or no weapon) - Player has a (modified) strength < 10
Jet/Ultrajet: - Player's remaining AP are insufficient to perform a V.A.T.S. attack with their equipped weapon Note: If you have both Jet and Ultrajet the Auto-Doc will apply the less addictive Ultrajet first, but if your action points are still too (or drop too low again) it will apply Jet as well.
Med-X: - Player's Damage Resistance is < 85% - Player's HP ⇐ Q (Q is specified by the player, may be 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90% or 100%)
Psycho - Player's HP ⇐ Q (Q may be 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90% or 100%)
Drugs Applied Any Time:
Rad-Away: - Player's total rads >= N (N is 200, 400, 600 or 800)
Rad-X: - Player's Radiation Resistance is < 85% - Player gains N or more rads in 1 second (N is 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 15, 20) Note: The player's radiation level must increase by N or more rads in two consecutive seconds to trigger the Rad-X injection. This should prevent it from giving the player Rad-X when the player gains one-time rads from consuming irradiated food or drink (time doesn't pass while in the Pip-Boy interface so all rads the player gets in one Pip-Boy session occur during the same second from the Auto-Doc's point of view).
Stimpack: Stimpacks have two separate HP thresholds depending on whether the player is in combat: - Player's HP ⇐ N (N may be 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90% or 100%) OR - Player is in combat and player's HP ⇐ Q (Q may be 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90% or 100%) Note: Stimpacks applied by the Auto-Doc will not heal crippled limbs.
V.A.P.S. Tandi Model 2145 Repair Unit Requirements: Science 60, Repair 40 Ingredients: Scrap Metal + Wrench + Hotplate Improved by increasing Repair skill and Nerd Rage
The Tandi 2145 can automatically repair all your equipment up to a maximum condition equal to your repair skill. Repairs are not free however: Every 100 points of equipment health costs 1 unit of scrap metal, 50 V.A.P.S. charge units and 100 bottle caps (n.b. values are carried over, e.g. if it consumes scrap metal to repair your weapon for 1 point it can then repair another 99 points on some other item before needing more scrap). Increasing your repair skill will increase the maximum condition it will repair to (up to a maximum of 100%). The “Nerd Rage!” perk will double the speed at which repairs are done (provided you have enough raw materials and energy).
V.A.P.S. Electrostatic Plasma Shield Requirements: Science 70 Ingredients: Tesla Armor + Plasma Mine
Are you a fan of clothing mods? Loving that stylish outfit but hating the 2% damage resistance it gives you? Want to charge into battle in true super-hero style wearing nothing by Lycra tights and a cape? Want to not get eaten alive by mole rats when you try that? We have the answer!
The Electrostatic Plasma Shield can be used to boost your general damage resistance by a user-specified amount up to the game's maximum allowed resistance (this is 85% if you don't have a mod that changes it, the shield script is should automatically detect any such mod and adjust its own maximum to match). While running it uses V.A.P.S. charge units at a rate determined by the number of points of DR it has to add.
A custom hotkey may be used to toggle the shield on and off at will, it may also be set through its menu to automatically activate when you enter combat (and subsequently deactivate automatically as soon as you've been out of combat for a few seconds). You may assign a custom (i.e. not digit's 1-8) hotkey to this item from its menu. See the section “Assigning a hotkey” below for details.
The shield has visual effects (currently just cloned from the Glowing One's effect) and sound effects which may be switched on or off from its configuration menu.
Note: As of beta 11 I haven't play-tested this extensively, so I'm not sure if the energy cost is appropriate. Currently it uses 0.25 CU per second per unit of DR (e.g. if you use it to raise your DR 40 points from 45 to 85 then it uses 10 CU/sec, if you use it to get from a DR of 84 to 85 it only requires 0.25 CU/sec). This multiplier is stored as a quest variable and may be adjusted from the console using the command: set vapsQuest.shieldCUMult to X Where “X” is the number of CU to use per point of DR per second. Setting this to 0 should make running the shield free.
V.A.P.S. Lootmaster 5000 Requirements: Science 80, Barter 40 Ingredients: Conductor + Mirelurk Meat + Laser Rifle Improved by Master Trader or increasing Barter skill
Ever noticed how Mirelurks can just appear out of thin air behind you while you're strolling through the wastes? Now you can put that ability to good use: The Lootmaster 5000 uses the Mirelurk's mysterious teleportation gland to whisk items out of your inventory and into the pockets of the nearest merchant, telepathically determines how much the merchant would pay for the item, and teleports the appropriate number of caps into your pocket.
In short the Lootmaster maintains a list of lootable items you only pick up for the caps, and automatically sells them for you. The Lootmaster can be improved with the “Master Trader” perk (halves the time required to make a sale) and by raising your barter skill (raises sale prices).
In addition to regular trading functions the Lootmaster 5000 can be set to handle excess scrap metal. If the player is carrying more than 20 scrap metal the Lootmaster can sell the excess, or trade it to certain NPC's (Walter in Megaton or Winthrop in Underworld) for other rewards (n.b. The options to send excess Scrap Metal to Walter and Winthrop are conditional on quest variables, they should not appear unless the NPC in question is alive and the player has agreed to provide the NPC with Scrap Metal via in-game dialog).
NOTE: Walter in Megaton has a tendency to fall to his death. As seen on wikia you can resurrect Walter himself with the following console commands: player.moveto 3B59 prid 3B59 kill resurrect disable enable
Unfortunately that doesn't reset the quest variable that he sets when dead, so the AATK doesn't know that he's come back to life. You can get the AATK scrap metal option back with the console commands:
set DialogueMegaton.WalterDead to 0 set FreeformMegaton.WalterWillBuyParts to 1
You can make this simple by creating a text file in your Fallout 3 directory with the commands in it, if you name it “fixwalter.txt” you could then run the whole series of commands in Fallout 3 by typing “bat fixwalter.txt” in the console.
A more permanent solution is to install some mod with changes Walter (or Megaton) so that he doesn't kill himself. A quick search on the Nexus suggests that this: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2380 is probably the simplest solution.
V.A.P.S. Portable Chemistry Set Requirements Ingredients:
This is an as-yet-incomplete V.A.P.S. tool for the Mr. Lab Technician mod. At the moment it can be used to purify water or decompose common items into reagent chemicals for the Mr. Lab Technician laboratory. Purified water produced with the chemistry set goes into the player's inventory, “boiled water” and reagents are teleported directly to the player's lab locker (requires Lootmaster for teleportation).
V.A.P.S. Ark Triplet Reactor - S Requirements Science 100, Repair 100 Ingredients: 1000 V.A.P.S. Charge Units
The ultimate V.A.P.S. accessory, but a real energy-hog. The Arc Triplet Reactor model S can produce complex material objects out of pure energy provided it has an example to work from.
The reactor maintains a list similar to the Lootmaster, and will automatically create listed objects in the player's inventory if you have less than the specified number of them (n.b. currently the same number for each item type). The cost (in V.A.P.S. Charge Units) to replicate an item is: (value + 10) * (weight + 10) * 100 Items with a weight of less than 1 will be treated as if they weighed 1 pound. The one exception to this rule is Nuka-Cola, due to a special sponsorship deal the cost to replicate is only 600 CU.
Examples: A Coffee Mug costs 11 * 11 * 100 = 12,100 CU A Laser Rifle costs 1010 * 18 * 100 = 1,818,000 CU (this may take a while)
Note: For anybody trying to do the math in their heads this means that a set of Nuka-Grenade ingredients costs: Item Weight Value CU Cost Nuka-Cola Quantum 1 30 = 44,000 Tin can 1 1 = 12,100 Turpentine 2 10 = 24,000 Abraxo Cleaner 1 5 = 16,500 Total 96,600 CU The grenade itself is Nuka-Grenade 0.5 50 = 2 * 51 * 100 = 63,000 CU
So if you have only 1 schematic and none of the ingredients then it is cheaper to replicate the grenade itself, but if you have more than one Nuka-Grenade schematic then it is cheaper to replicate the ingredients and produce grenades with a workbench (or the Automated Ammo Toolkit), and if you have the Quantum Chemist perk you can reduce the cost of the Nuka-Cola Quantum to only 6000 CU by stockpiling regular Nuka-Cola instead.
Note: The Nuka-Cola deal is intended to keep the “Quantum Chemist” perk useful, as it means that nuka cola can be replicated for 600 CU, well under 10% of the energy required to replicate Quantum. For the same reason, if your stockpile level is set to 10 then the reactor will not produce Nuka-Cola if you're carrying 10 or more Quantum's (It doesn't actually check for the Quantum Chemist perk because I don't want to make the main V.A.P.S. esp depend on Broken Steel).
3.2 Things that produce power:
The V.A.P.S Solar Charger Requirements: Science 50 Ingredients: Conductor + Sensor Module Improved by Solar Powered perk
The Solar Charger produces a little V.A.P.S. energy all the time, though it produces energy much more quickly outside in daylight than it does indoors or at night. If you have the Solar Powered perk then it will produce energy twice as fast if you are outside during the day.
V.A.P.S. MicroICE™ Generator Requirements: Science 60, Repair 60 Ingredients: Steam Gauge Assembly + Vacuum Cleaner + Sensor Module + Motorcycle Gas Tank Improved by Pyromaniac, Scrounger
The Micro Internal Combustion Engine is a much faster source of energy than the Solar Charger, but it requires fuel. You may re-fuel it with either alcoholic drinks or flamer fuel. It will produce energy (and use up fuel) faster when given more flammable substances (flamer fuel being the fastest). The MicroICE can be upgraded if you have the Pyromaniac perk (increases the energy output) or the Scrounger perk (allows you to get leftover Dirty Water when using Beer or Wine as fuel).
V.A.P.S. Bio-Fuel Cell Requirements: Science 60, Medicine 60 Ingredients: Hot Plate + Pressure Cooker + Wonderglue Improved by Chemist
The Bio-Fuel Cell can produce a similar amount of energy to the MicroICE, but requires organic matter as input and takes a little energy to keep running (n.b. even if it's turned on it uses NO energy unless it is actively processing some material). It takes some time for you to start seeing results after adding organic matter, so be patient. By default this will run on organic waste (in vanilla Fallout 3 this is just the mutilated body parts you tend to find in Super-Mutant camps), but it may also be set to consume food items. The third “expensive food” category in the configuration menu refers to high-value food items like Mole Rat Wondermeat, Mirelurk Meat or Sugar Bombs (which can be used to obtain Ultrajet). If you have the Chemist perk you can speed up (double) the fuel cell's processing rate.
V.A.P.S. Mr. Fusion™ Generator Requirements: Science 100, Repair 60 Ingredients: Mini Nuke + Fission Battery + Lunchbox + Surgical Tubing + Pressure Cooker Improved by Luck
The ultimate V.A.P.S. power source, Mr. Fusion produces massive amounts of energy by extracting Hydrogen from water and fusing it into Helium. It takes quite a bit of energy to establish the magnetic containment vessel needed for cold fusion, so this shouldn't be your only power source. Note that this device can occasionally break down if you're unlucky, in which case you will get some additional rads and need to re-establish the containment vessel. Using pure water reduces the breakdown probability (a lot), as does having a high luck stat and running in Safe Mode (which yields less power per second than Overcharge Mode).
3.3 Generator Notes
Many of the V.A.P.S. generators described above have options or upgrades that will allow the player to increase their power output. It should be noted that generators that consume fuel ALL have a fixed power output for any given fuel input. Example the MicroICE™ can generate 10 V.A.P.S. charge units from one unit of Flamer Fuel. Normally when burning Flamer Fuel it will produce 1 CU every 2 seconds, so it will use up 1 unit of Flamer Fuel every 10 seconds. When upgraded with the Pyromaniac perk the MicroICE will produce 1 CU per second when burning Flamer Fuel, but still produces a total of 10 CU per unit of Flamer Fuel, so uses up a unit of Flamer Fuel every 5 seconds.
There is ONE exception, a generator upgrade that indirectly increases energy generation: Upgrading the MicroICE™ with the scrounger perk will allow you to produce Dirty Water when burning low-alcohol content drinks in the MicroICE (currently Beer and Wine). The Dirty Water can then be used as fuel for Mr. Fusion.
3.4 Misc Crap
V.A.P.S. Hyperflux Capacitor Requirements Science 90, Repair 90 Ingredients: Pulse Mine + Scrap Metal + Nuka-Cola Quantum
Unlike other V.A.P.S. devices you are allowed to craft more than one of these. Each one you have in your inventory raises your charge limit by 1000CU (but unlike the other V.A.P.S. items they're not weightless).
Your current V.A.P.S. power level is tracked by adding and removing “V.A.P.S. Charge Unit” items, which show up in your “Misc” inventory tab in the Pip-Boy. They're weightless, worthless (to sell) and flagged as quest items which should prevent you from dropping them (which would allow cheating the charge limit). Just ignore them unless you're wondering what your current power level is.
The Automated Ammo Toolkit adds “Gunpowder” as a precursor to manufacturing projectile ammo and explosives. When you recycle projectile ammo you get both gunpowder and scrap metal, so if you're using shell casings as scrap and producing something that doesn't require gunpowder, you can end up with quite a sizable surplus. It is weightless, so you can safely ignore it. Unlike V.A.P.S. Charge Units gunpowder may be dropped or stored in a container.
3.5 Assigning a hotkey Items that have a custom hotkey option work by scanning for the next keypress after the “Assign Hotkey” menu item is chosen. However, the keypress detection DOES NOT WORK when your Pip-Boy is raised. In my experience if you activate the item and select “Assign Hotkey” from your Pip-Boy, then press tab and then the key you want to assign it does work, but if you're having trouble I suggest using the following instructions:
- In your Pip-Boy assign a standard hotkey (i.e. a number key from 1 to 8) to the item with CTRL+Number - Exit your Pip-Boy display to normal game mode - Tap the numbered hotkey you chose to get to the item's configuration menu - Click (and release) the “Assign Hotkey” button - Wait (without touching any controls) for the message “Please press and hold (only) the key you want to assign” to appear in the upper-left corner of your screen (or wherever your GUI mod puts such messages if you're using one). - Press the new hotkey you want to use and hold it down until the “Hotkey set to scan code…” message displays
Note that while I describe them as hot “keys” in fact anything detected by the FOSE IsKeyPressed function should work. In theory this even includes mouse buttons, but I haven't been able to get that to work. I am able to bind any key on my Logitech keyboard including the “Stop” button in the media control panel. YMMV. There are a fair number of hotkey mods around already, but if I get a lot of positive feedback about this I may make a more generic version to assign arbitrary hotkeys to arbitrary (scriptable) actions.
4 Compatibility:
4.0 General Compatibility notes: V.A.P.S. Doesn't modify any real-world cells (it does add a few vendor containers, but they're not even attached to vendors) so it should function alongside nearly any other mod that doesn't break CRAFT.
There are a few limitations on compatibility for mods without a compatibility plugin:
- Food or biological waste items added by mods will not work with the Bio-Fuel cell and will be treated as having a value of 100 caps by the Ark Triplet Reactor.
- Alcoholic drinks should work with the MicroICE as long as they're added to Fallout's standard AlchoholicDrinks (sic) formlist, they will be treated as distilled spirits.
- Any non-ingestible items (i.e. items for which the FOSE GetValue function returns more than zero) added by mods should work with the Lootmaster without any special handling.
4.1 Existing V.A.P.S. Compatibility plugins:
- The Automated Ammo Toolkit (vaps-automated-ammo-toolkit.esp) adds extensive automation features to StewB's “Ammo Toolkits” mod (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2693). The current plugin was created with Ammo Toolkits 3.71.
- The Mr. Lab Technician add-on (MrLabTechnician.esp) is a modified version of Mr. Lab Technician that works with V.A.P.S.
- The Broken Steel plugin adds Aqua Pura and Aqua Cura to the “clean” fuel list for Mr. Fusion
- The Point Lookout plugin adds wild and refined Punga Fruit respectively to fuel lists for the Bio-Fuel cell.
- Marts Mutant Mod plugin adds the indigestibles and a few misc items added by MMF3 to the Bio-Fuel Cell's list of valid fuel items. The current plugin was created with MMMF3 RC5.0
4.2 Making a V.A.P.S. compatibility plugin: A compatibility plugin typically just consists of a script rigged so that it runs every time the game starts and adds items to the various V.A.P.S. FormLists as appropriate. Please feel free to make or distribute plugins, if you make one for your favorite mod and send it to me I'll probably include it in the next V.A.P.S. release.
Plugin authors please note that run-once scripts (e.g. a quest script that runs StopQuest on itself) WILL NOT WORK because the quest status will be preserved in a saved game and the FormList changes will not be. Instead use a quest with a long-ish delay setting and place the required FormList modification commands in an “if GetGameRestarted == 1” block. If in doubt open vaps.esp in the GECK and have a look at the beginning of the script “vapsquestScript”.
As of the time of this writing the V.A.P.S. FormLists in vaps.esm are as follows:
Three lists define the three categories of organic matter the Bio-Fuel Cell can be set to use:
vapsBioCellFuelListFree A list of valid BioCell input items that are considered otherwise worthless (i.e. have no beneficial effect or value as loot).
vapsBioCellFuelListCheap A list of BioCell input items that are considered to be of low value (e.g. Radroach meat, Human Flesh)
vapsBioCellFuelListExpensive A list of BioCell input items that are considered fairly valuable (e.g. Mirelurk Meat)
There are two lists for the Fusion reactor (which by default contain only one item each):
vapsFusionFuelListClean A list of water sources that should be considered “clean” (i.e. very low chance of malfunction when using them)
vapsFusionFuelListDirty A list of water sources that are “dirty” and thus have a higher associated probability of malfunction.
vapsLootmasterRejectList In theory a list of items that the Lootmaster will reject, but at the moment the list is not actually used.
vapsReplicatorRejectList A list of items that the Arc Triplet Reactor should refuse to duplicate. This should normally include all V.A.P.S. objects. Anything flagged as a quest item should be rejected automatically without being added to this list.
vapsValueLookupContainerRef A “list” in the form of a container, this is intended to hold a certain number of consumable items to represent the item's value (e.g. vaps.esp adds 2 beers, 100 Stealth Boys, etc.). Use commands like “vapsValueLookupContainerRef.addItem myModIngestible value” to encode the value of mod-added ingestible items so that they may be sold by the Lootmaster or replicated at the correct price by the Ark Triplet Reactor. If your mod adds a large number of ingestible items it may be easier to copy values in from another similarly configured container, see vapsQuestScript for an example of this.
5.1 Known Problems:
- If you cheat with “additem” to give yourself the V.A.P.S. stuff the items may not work as expected (or at all).
Workaround: If you must cheat, use the built-in debugging cheat “set vapsquest.cheat to 1” at the console which will give you the required stats and ingredients to discover and build all the V.A.P.S. items (n.b. you still don't actually get most of the V.A.P.S. schematic notes until after you build the Solar Charger). This will also give you infinite V.A.P.S. charge units, if you don't want that then wait until the cheat mode as added the V.A.P.S. ingredients to your inventory and then use the command “set vapsquest.powercheat to 0” to stop it from adding charge units.
- V.A.P.S. configuration dialogs can get “confused” typically resulting in shutting down whatever device you were trying to configure if you activate more than one of them (or the same one twice) in a single session in your Pip-Boy. A few V.A.P.S. objects' menus won't pop up at all until you exit the Pip-Boy.
Workaround: After using a V.A.P.S. menu dialog exit your Pip-Boy interface and re-enter it before accessing another V.A.P.S. menu. Alternately access the menu by using an assigned hotkey for that V.A.P.S. item while outside your Pip-Boy interface.
- If you select the CRAFT option at a workbench when in OTS camera mode and try to build a V.A.P.S. item your character may become invisible (to you). This is a known-issue with CRAFT 1.25.
Workaround: Switch to the FPS camera before activating the workbench or if your character is already invisible talk to any NPC that opens a full dialog box (e.g. any nearby merchant or your robo-butler) or enter and then exit your Pip-Boy interface.
- The Lootmaster cannot be used to sell ingestible items added by mods without a compatibility plugin (e.g. food and drugs, basically anything that shows up in your “Aid” category). This is a result of a FOSE issue I don't have a workaround for: GetValue always returns a value of zero for ingestible items. The Lootmaster's script stops it from “selling” any zero-valued items in order to prevent it from unexpectedly giving away valuable aid items placed in its list.
Workaround: Compatibility plugins should correct the problem for individual mods and DLC, see the section “Making a V.A.P.S. compatibility plugin”
- The Lootmaster doesn't sell weapons and clothing for their real value: It assumes they're all at 50% condition when calculating prices. This is because I can't figure out a way to get from the point of knowing “the player has 30 combat shotguns” to “I have a reference to a combat shotgun in the player's inventory and it has N health points” without actually equipping the item in question on the player (which is very, very irritating to the user).
Workaround: None. If you really care about eeking out every last bottle cap then you shouldn't add any weapons or armor to the Lootmaster's list if you have (or are likely to find) instances of those items which are in good condition, but this more-or-less defeats the purpose of making the Lootmaster in the first place. OTOH any caps lost this way are likely to be overcompensated for by the fact that you can now loot all the equipment in Raven Rock.
- The Lootmaster doesn't actually sell items to specific merchants (I was too lazy to script that), it just removes them from your inventory and adds the caps. This can make some (unmarked or mod-added) quests difficult or impossible to finish. Most activities that demand a specific item only require one of them, and thus cannot be broken by the Lootmaster (you've still got the one you put it's vendor container to get it to sell the others), but certain quests (e.g. the bulk-order of Chinese Assault Rifles for Paradise Falls) can be problematic.
Workaround: Either don't ask the Lootmaster to sell stuff you're going to want later or use the Arc Triplet Reactor (or a cheat code) to create the item(s) you need.
- Most V.A.P.S. items don't have world models yet, so they will disappear if you drop them. The one exception is the Hot Heron IX, which looks like a baby's rattle (because it needed a working onDrop block to remove the stealth effect).
Workaround: Don't drop V.A.P.S. items on the ground.
- Walter in Megaton has a tendancy to fall to his death (vanilla FO3 bug), and then the Lootmaster can't send him scrap metal.
Workaround: Multiple solutions, see the Lootmaster 5000 description for details.
- The current V.A.P.S. Mr. Lab Technician esp does not override the AutoDoc's script and menus. This means that the Auto Doc still refers to Med-X/Morphine as “Med-X” and does not apply any chems added by Mr. Lab Technician.
Workaround: None. My next release should contain an updated Auto-Doc in the MrLabTechnician.esp
- Mr. Lab Technician's acid on some locked objects (e.g. footlockers) may crash the game.
Workaround: Save before using acid. I think the problem may be that the game engine doesn't support applying an effect shader to some objects. If I'm right it should be possible to modify the script to apply the effect shader (smoke cloud) only to objects that support it.
- The readme/manual for V.A.P.S. is far too long and keeps getting longer.
Workaround: Stop reading now. The problem has been reported to the mod's author, but the author just did a mad-scientist laugh and was reaching for a drawer marked “Mesmetron Prototype A” when the person who reported it ran away.
5.2 Future Plans:
I'd love to find one or more artists willing to help add world models and original icons for V.A.P.S. items. I got about as far as learning to use Gimp and Photoshop before I realized that I have the artistic talent of a dead hedgehog in a paper bag.
Plugins for more mods & DLC.
Improvements to the Automated Ammo Toolkit: I'd like to add CALIBR and Zeta support.
Combine most of the simpler scripts to reduce the number of GameMode blocks being executed on every frame.
A better flashlight (possibly replacing the Solar Charger as the easiest V.A.P.S. item to craft)
A Night-Vision system
An electrolysis based compact rebreather (i.e. something that adds the Water Breathing effect)
An advanced medicine upgrade to the AutoDoc (to treat crippled limbs, possibly also addictions).
Modify the lootmaster to have the option to transport listed items into a player-specified container.
5.3 Credits:
Scripting and Documentation DrStrangePork Special thanks for testing & suggestions by Kal_Choedan Thanks to televator for setting me straight about FO3's barter formula and the (forthcoming when I get around to testing it) FWE plugin.
5.4 History: Beta 14 - Added new ingestibles for MMMF3 RC 6.0 to vaps-marts-mutant-mod.esp - Added Deathclaw hands to the “Expensive” category for the Bio-Fuel Cell - Added automatic reverse engineering to the portable chemistry set - Added new “Special Deals” menu to the Lootmaster to handle cases where a specific NPC gives a reward for a specific item. - Moved Lootmaster Scrap Metal Settings into “Special Deals” menu - Added selling BOS Holotags to Scribe Jameson & Pre-War books to Scribe Yearling in “Special Deals” menu - Changed Mr. Lab Technician ingredient name “Morphine” → “Opiate Alkaloids” to avoid confusion with drug “Morphine” (formerly Med-X) - Changed Mr. Lab Technician ingredient name “Sack of Bagels” → “Poppy Seed Bagels” - Changed Mr. Lab Technician ingredient name “Boiled Water” → “Distilled Water” - Modified Mr. Lab Technician hot-key script, hitting the key while targeting a water source now fills ALL valid empty bottles with water - Fuel-value calculation in the Bio-Fuel Cell script now treats items that weigh less than 1lb as if they weighed 1lb. - Slightly increased the energy value of all food items for the Bio-Fuel Cell - Fixed Mr. Fusion re-fueling to so that it doesn't run dry for one cycle at the end of each bottle of water.
Beta 13 - Added extra conditions to CRAFT quest topics so that V.A.P.S. item creation topics should not show up for items the player already has (other than the Hyperflux Capacitor). - Changed the first ingredient in the Bio-Fuel Cell schematic from the Food Sanitizer to a Hot Plate. Update Ark Triplet Reactor menu code, when trying to replicate an item the menu will now show the current charge level and total cost (due to limitations in the message-box system it cannot currently show the item name). Change the charge capacity of the Hyperflux Capacitor from 1000 to 3000 charge units (meaning that if all you want to do is ensure that you can run the Ark Triplet Reactor and have enough reserve energy to reboot Mr. Fusion after a breakdown you will now only need to be carrying 1 Hyperflux Capacitor).
Beta 12 Reduced the weight of the Bio-Fuel Cell, it should now never weigh more than its contents Fixed a bug in the Bio-Fuel Cell that prevented it from displaying the number of items removed from the player's inventory when fueling up with multiple items of the same type. “Compost” fuel in the Bio-Fuel cell now produces 10 CU per pound rather than 15. Added a limited initial version of the V.A.P.S.-enabled version of Mr. Lab Technician, currently only supports decomposing items into chemicals and purifying water.
Beta 11 Fixed the Lootmaster's barter formula (thanks televator) to use the relevant game settings instead of hard-coded constants. Mods that affect the barter selling price should now affect the Lootmaster's prices as well.
Added a new variable vapsquest.bartermod which is used to adjust the Lootmaster's selling prices. This is a multiplier so a value of 0.5 means you get half as much money as if you bartered the item to a merchant, 2.0 means twice as much money (you're welcome televator). By default this is set to 1.0, but feel free to set it lower if you want to have a penalty associated with using the lootmaster (e.g. at the console type “set vapsquest.bartermod to 0.9”). Setting this to a value ⇐ 0 should result in it being set back to 1.0
Added V.A.P.S. Electrostatic Plasma Shield
Rewrote the V.A.P.S. quest script as two seperate scripts: One to hold V.A.P.S. variables and do global tasks, the other to actually present the V.A.P.S. framing quest. This should make future updates much easier (resetting the framing quest won't reset the vapsquest.* configuration variables).
I can't believe it never occurred to me to test this, but since they have no clothing models the V.A.P.S. apparel items work just fine without being assigned any clothing slot. Accordingly I have modified them so that they no longer use the backpack (or any) slot when equipped. Backpack-mod users rejoice!
Sorry Lord Inquisitor, but since I can't figure out how to use your (very nice looking) model and it never made it into an actual V.A.P.S. release I've removed your entry in the Credits :( Fixed assorted typos in the Readme as usual. 1 ov thees dais Ill lern hao 2 spel korrectly.
Beta 10 Attempted to add a world model for the Charge Controller, several hours later have nothing to show for it but a box that floats in mid air when “dropped” and a new appreciation for how complicated nif files are. Modified the debugging-cheat section in the main V.A.P.S. quest to trigger on a quest variable rather than needing to be un-commented when I wanted to use it and then commented-out again for release (and updated “known problems” entry on cheating accordingly). Fixed a bug which broke the AATK's scrap-metal menu (I rewrote part of the menu code well after adding the scrap menu and forgot to test it. Oops.)
Beta 9 Extensive rewrite of the Automated Ammo Toolkit script: Scrap Metal source items may now be configured individually Added “Recycle All” and “Recycle Excess” modes in addition to old Recycle (now “Recycle as Needed”) The stockpile level may now be set incrementally between 5 and 1,000,000 units Added a container to vaps.esm for plugins to provide a count-based lookup table for the values of ingestible items. Modified the Ark Triplet Reactor script, n.b. the cost of replicating most ingestible items has decreased as a result, but the cost of replicating other cheap items has increased due to changes made to ensure that cheap liquids (e.g. beer) could not be replicated for fewer charge units than they may yield (in the case of beer that would be 10,002.5 (2.5 from the MicroICE, an additional 10,000 from Mr. Fusion assuming the player has the Scrounger perk). Increased the effect that “Overcharge Mode” has on Mr. Fusion's power output Added an automatic “Sleep Mode” switch to Mr. Fusion to have it automatically stop producing power (and failure risk) when the player's charge level is at least 75% of their maximum charge level. Updated MMF3 plugin to add ingestible item values Updated Broken Steel plugin to add Aqua Pura and Aqua Cura values, also correctly re-classified Aqua Cura as “Dirty Water” when used with Mr. Fusion. Updated Point Lookout add-on to make Moonshine a valid fuel for the MicroICE generator and add value lookup info for Punga fruit and Moonshine.
Beta 8 Fixed a bug in the Automated Ammo Toolkit script that could cause it to recycle more energy ammo than the player actually had.
Beta 7 Increased the burn rate & update frequency of the MicroICE generator and reduced the amount of energy from each fuel-item it burns (so now it should actually keep up with the rate at which the player can pick up free booze). Added a compatibility plugin for Point Lookout Fixed a bug in the Hot Heron's script that could prevent it from charging until the player added parts from a second Stealth Boy Added a delay timer to the Lootmaster script to reduce CPU usage when it can't find anything to sell. Modified the Lootmaster's payout schedule to reduce message spam Added options for handling excess Scrap Metal to the Lootmaster Added the option to run Mr. Fusion in “Overcharge Mode” which yields 4x as much energy/sec but has a 10x higher probability of malfunction
Beta 6 Slowed the Bio-Fuel Cell down a little Added an intelligence and “outdoors” check to the start of the “All Kitted Out” framing quest for the AATK to match the main V.A.P.S. framing quest Fixed a bug in the Ark Triplet Reactor script that could cause it to stop producing anything while Nuka-Cola was in it's list and the player was carrying 10 or more Nuka-Cola Quantums. Modified the Ark Triplet Reactor's reserve level to prevent it from taking charge units if the player has less than a 25% charge (should prevent it from sucking power while Mr. Fusion is trying to charge up) Modified the Ark Triplet Reactor's and Lootmaster scripts to do a recount on game restart. This should prevent them from using invalid references after loading a saved-game with different mods installed. Modified repair script to allow it to repair items with zero current health
Beta 5 Increased the effect of the Master Trader perk on the Lootmaster Removed some console debugging messages from the Ark Triplet Reactor's script Modified the Ark Triplet Reactor to use charge units more quickly if they're available Corrected the spelling of the Ark Triplet Reactor's charge-progress message. The automated ammo toolkit can now recycle energy ammo much more quickly Added an options menu to the Automated Ammo Toolkit that lets you control how many messages it will show while working Increased the effect of Pyromaniac on the MicroICE (especially when burning low-quality fuel) Added a new object, the V.A.P.S. Hyperflux Capacitor which increases your max charge level Added “Crispy Squirrel Bits” to the main Bio-Fuel Cell cheap list. The VAPS charge controller will no longer be added to a player's inventory when all items are removed (as they seem quite fond of doing in DLC quests).
Beta 4 Fixed a bug that would allow the Bio-Fuel cell to keep producing after the player reached max charge. Fixed a bug that caused the Ark Triplet Reactor to discharge itself when trying to replicate an item while the player was low on charge units. Increased the Bio-Fuel Cell contents limit, reduced the weight calculation. Decreased the energy cost of selling an item with the Lootmaster from 5 CU to 2 CU Duplicate items removed from the Lootmaster will now be returned to the player's inventory. Increased the number of identical items the Lootmaster can sell in each pass
Beta 3 Fixed an error that made building the Ark Triplet Reactor depend on having the repair schematic instead of the reactor schematic. Modified the Bio-Fuel Cell to make it more useful by allowing it to process more organic matter in each cycle. Updated the readme a bit.
Beta 2 Actually the first version anybody downloaded. Beta 1 had some debugging code switched on that automatically boosted player's stats and gave them all the ingredients for the V.A.P.S. items.
Beta 1 V.A.P.S. Beta 1 is entirely new code, things have been “tested” but since 99% of testing was done while standing around in Crater Side Supply (I've lost count of the number of times I've attacked Moira's guard with a baseball bat while testing the Auto-Doc) it probably still has issues I don't know about.
Pre Release V.A.P.S. started out as my own personal-use hack of Highsight's Solar Charger mod (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2021), but when I finally discovered a way to iterate through the contents of a container I decided to do a complete rewrite and release it to the world. The old hack wasn't very user friendly, e.g. you added something to the sell-off list by dropping it on the ground, targeting it with the crosshairs, hitting a hotkey and then picking it up again. Since FormList changes aren't saved the selloff list would reset every time you left the game, but that turned out to be handy since removing an item from the list caused the game to crash. Thankfully it's come a long way since then :)
Item for Fallout NV: